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Sivefors, P. (2024). Klass, kön och Shakespeare: Elise Karlssons Smuts. Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap, 53(4), 98-119
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Klass, kön och Shakespeare: Elise Karlssons Smuts
2024 (Swedish)In: Tidskrift för litteraturvetenskap, ISSN 1104-0556, E-ISSN 2001-094X, Vol. 53, no 4, p. 98-119Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [sv]

Artikeln argumenterar för att användningen av Shakespeare i Elise Karlssons roman Smuts (2021) accentuerar och utvecklar romanens tematiska fokus på arbete, prekaritet och kön. Smuts, som utspelar sig runt en uppsättning av En midsommarnattsdröm på en fiktiv teater i Stockholm, är i linje med tendenser i Karlssons tidigare arbeten och i svensk samtidsprosa. Som manusassistent är romanens huvudsakliga berättarjag frilansarbetare i en ekonomi där arbetet är prekärt och - trots den förment höga statusen hos hennes arbete i kultursektorn - illa betalt och bokstavligen meningslöst. Shakespeares pjäs står i fokus inte bara på grund av romanfigurernas likheter med pjäsens, utan för att romanens betoning av klass, arbete och kvinnlig underordning kan sägas utveckla teman som finns i pjäsen. Med andra ord är romanen ett exempel på samtida svensk "arbetarlitteratur", men som artikeln betonar byggs dess fokus på klass, prekaritet och kön upp i form av intertextuella paralleller med Shakespeare.

Abstract [en]

This essay suggests that the use of Shakespeare in Elise Karlsson’s novel Smuts (2021) serves to accentuate and develop the novel’s thematic focus on work, precarity, class, and gender. Revolving around a production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at a fictitious theatre in Stockholm, Smuts aligns itself with tendencies in Karlsson’s previous work as well as in contemporary Swedish literature: as an assistant script editor, its narrator is a freelance worker in an economy where work is precarious and perceived—despite the supposedly high status of her work in the cultural sector—as badly paid and, literally, meaningless. Shakespeare’s play becomes a focal point for these themes not just because of the extensive character parallels with Smuts, but also because the complex notions of class, work and female subjugation in Karlsson’s novel can be seen as developments of themes that are very much present in the play. In other words, Smuts is a good example of contemporary ‘working-class literature’ in Sweden, and as the essay suggests, it builds up its focus on precarity, class, and gender in terms of intertextual parallelisms with Shakespeare.

Keywords
Elise Karlsson, Smuts, working-class literature, Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, work, sex, gender, Shakespeare, Elise Karlsson, Smuts, En midsommarnattsdröm, arbetarlitteratur, prekaritet, klasskildringar, kön, kvinnlig underordning, intertextualitet
National Category
General Literature Studies Specific Languages
Research subject
English; Comparative Literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-101527 (URN)10.54797/tfl.v53i4.16885 (DOI)
Available from: 2024-09-03 Created: 2024-09-03 Last updated: 2024-11-07Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. (2024). Shakespeares värde och demokratins: Kritik och politik i Sverige, 1900-1950. In: : . Paper presented at Litterära värden och värderingar, symposium 18-19 april 2024, Karlstads universitet.
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Shakespeares värde och demokratins: Kritik och politik i Sverige, 1900-1950
2024 (Swedish)Conference paper, Oral presentation only (Other academic)
Abstract [sv]

 Det är inte på något sätt överraskande att frågan om Shakespeares ”värde” har besvarats på många olika sätt. Inte heller är det oväntat att svaren ofta haft en mer eller mindre tydlig politisk klangbotten, vilket kanske blir särskilt klart under tider av konflikter och kriser. Shakespeares värde sätts exempelvis i relation till hans plats i det moderna demokratiska samhället, antingen genom att hans egna antidemokratiska tid och värderingar kontrasteras mot en modernare och mer ”upplyst” samtid, eller genom hans ”universella” värde som transcenderar hans egen samtid. I min presentation tänker jag kortfattat diskutera förhållandet mellan sådana värderande läsningar av Shakespeare i Sverige och de djupgående europeiska och globala kriserna – i synnerhet de två världskrigen – under 1900-talets första hälft. Ofta sätts Shakespeares estetiska värde i förhållande till de värderingar som antogs förekomma under hans tid. Litteraturhistorikern Henrik Schück talar exempelvis om att Shakespeare rentav såg patricierna i Coriolanus som ”alltför ’demokratiska’”, och hans danska kollega Georg Brandes diskuterar den ”antidemokratiska” uppfattning som enligt honom tidigt fått rotfäste hos Shakespeare. Underförstått blir Shakespeares antidemokratiska hållning här en kontrast till moderna demokratiska värderingar; hans värde består alltså delvis i att hans pjäser belyser den fundamentala skillnaden mellan hans eget samhälle och det moderna demokratiska. Så tuktas en argbigga – en av de mest framförda pjäserna vid den här tiden – framhålls ofta som antikverad och otidsenlig i sina kvinnoporträtt, vilket knappast framstår som överraskande under den tid då kvinnlig rösträtt debatterades (och slutligen infördes 1919). Inget av detta innebär dock att Shakespeares ”värde” devalveras; snarare framställs det som desto större eftersom det antas överbrygga hans egen tids värderingar och samtidens. Just detta ”universella värde” får en alltmer politisk klangbotten under 1900-talets första hälft. I kristider blir det särskilt vanligt att betona Shakespeares värde som förespråkare för tolerans och demokratiska värderingar (även om motsatsen också gäller, inte minst i det nazistiska Tyskland, där Shakespeare också spelades). Till exempel beskriver konst- och teaterkritikern August Brunius, mitt under första världskriget, Shakespeare som ”ett sinne fullt av jämvikt, stillhet och tolerans, en själ som förstod livet och icke ville försvärja sig åt någon ensidighet”. Även Schück, i sin bok från samma år som Brunius (1916), menar att ”ingen skald har så opartiskt som [Shakespeare] skildrat människorna”; det är, menar jag, knappast en tillfällighet att opartiskheten framhävs som en dygd under ett krig då Sverige var just ”opartiskt”, dvs. neutralt. Under det andra världskriget blir Shakespeare i än högre grad en symbol för det mänskliga, toleranta, universella. Detta är i och för sig inte unikt för Sverige, utan speglar en allmän tendens hos den liberala demokratins försvarare, t ex i amerikanen Alwin Thalers bok Shakespeare and Democracy från 1941. I det neutrala Sverige förekommer liknande kopplingar mellan demokratins värde och Shakespeares; Eyvind Johnson citerar slutraderna – på engelska – i En vintersaga i den sista delen av sin antinazistiska romansvit om Krilon (1941-43), och Shakespeare blir här en symbol för behovet av läkande och fred efter att nazismen besegrats.  De uttalade eller underliggande idéerna om Shakespeares värde spänner dock över ett brett register och skiftar med de politiska omständigheterna, vilket kan illustreras av två uppsättningar på samma teater och av samme regissör. Alf Sjöbergs Mycket väsen för ingenting på Dramaten 1940 fungerade närmast som en lustfylld antites till beredskapsårens ångestfyllda stämningar, medan Köpmannen i Venedig på Dramaten 1944 fick ett starkt antifascistiskt budskap, men detta först då nazismen var på väg att slutgiltigt besegras och ett sådant budskap sågs som mindre politiskt farligt. Efter krigsslutet blev det desto vanligare att erkänna problemen med Shakespeares Shylockfigur, även om detta gärna förklaras med den elisabetanska ”tidsandan” som återigen dels kontrasteras mot det mer insiktsfulla nuet, dels kontrasteras mot Shakespeares universalitet och förmåga att transcendera sin egen tid. Samtidigt är frågan om Shakespeares värde direkt kopplad till läsarnas/kritikernas egna skiftande ideologiska utgångspunkter. Så skriver den marxistiske kritikern och debattören Per Meurling 1952 att Shakespeare förkroppsligar ett förkapitalistiskt produktionssätt där arbetaren ännu inte förfrämligats från sitt eget arbete, till skillnad från ”den moderna demokratiens breda, grå, opersonliga massa”. Här blir Shakespeares ”värde” alltså inte bara ett estetiskt utan ett ekonomiskt begrepp – vilket tydligt illustrerar de starkt skiftande kriterier som utgjort grundvalen för en värderande – och samtidigt politisk – läsning av Shakespeare. 

Keywords
Shakespeare, reception, nordisk litteraturkritik, 1900-talet, Henrik Schück, August Brunius, demokrati och skönlitteratur
National Category
Languages and Literature
Research subject
English; Comparative Literature; Cultural studies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-101526 (URN)
Conference
Litterära värden och värderingar, symposium 18-19 april 2024, Karlstads universitet
Available from: 2024-09-03 Created: 2024-09-03 Last updated: 2024-11-07Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. (2023). ‘A great interpreter of modern life’: Eyvind Johnson and the changing perception of Shakespeare. In: Nely Keinänen, Per Sivefors (Ed.), Reconstructing Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: National Revival and Interwar Politics, 1870 – 1940 (pp. 229-250). London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Open this publication in new window or tab >>‘A great interpreter of modern life’: Eyvind Johnson and the changing perception of Shakespeare
2023 (English)In: Reconstructing Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: National Revival and Interwar Politics, 1870 – 1940 / [ed] Nely Keinänen, Per Sivefors, London: Bloomsbury Publishing , 2023, p. 229-250Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This book chapter traces the use of Shakespeare in the works of Eyvind Johnson (1900-1976) from the 1920s until the 1940s. Its main argument is that the role of Shakespeare in general and Hamlet in particular change in accordance with Johnson's own changing political, ideological and aesthetic outlook. In the earlier novels, the Hamlet figure stands for the general sense of rootlessness and lack of initiative following the First World War, whereas later novel represent deliberate attempts at overcoming this impasse. Subsequently, if Shakespeare in the later 1930s could raise the question of the general relevance of literature and culture in an age of fascism, the Bard would later be aligned with the healing and reconciliation needed in the wake of the Second World War.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023
Series
Global Shakespeare Inverted
Keywords
William Shakespeare, Eyvind Johnson, influence, interwar politics
National Category
Languages and Literature Specific Literatures
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98809 (URN)9781350251250 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-08-14 Created: 2024-03-15Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. (2023). Alienating Hamlet: Precarious Work in Jenny Andreasson's Teatern. Critical Survey, 35(4), 41-57
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Alienating Hamlet: Precarious Work in Jenny Andreasson's Teatern
2023 (English)In: Critical Survey, ISSN 0011-1570, E-ISSN 1752-2293, Vol. 35, no 4, p. 41-57Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The protagonist of Jenny Andreasson's autobiographical novel Teatern (2022) is a young female director whose feminist production of Hamlet at the Swedish national stage fails to have its planned premiere. While the novel makes a point of describing the misogynist structures behind this failure, the present article suggests that class structures and precarity are the main reasons behind it. The financial difficulties of the theatre generate a clear discrepancy between cultural capital – embodied by Shakespeare's canonical play – and economic. The resulting precarious work situation is reflected in the protagonist's yearning for stability, in her recurring assertions of class privileges vis-à-vis her co-workers and in her increasing sense of alienation from both them and her own work. While not strictly paraphrasing Shakespeare's play, the protagonist invokes parallels to both Hamlet and Ophelia, and Teatern, instead of locating these parallels in an ‘existential’ reading of Shakespeare's play, anchors the theme of alienation in the economic and social strictures of the theatre institution.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berghahn Books, 2023
Keywords
alienation; class; Hamlet; Jenny Andreasson; precarity; Teatern; William Shakespeare; work
National Category
Languages and Literature
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98816 (URN)10.3167/cs.2023.350404 (DOI)001085828100003 ()2-s2.0-85174176394 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-09-13 Created: 2024-03-14Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. & Keinänen, N. (2023). Introduction. In: Nely Keinänen, Per Sivefors (Ed.), Reconstructing Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: National Revival and Interwar Politics, 1870 – 1940 (pp. 1-34). London: Bloomsbury Academic
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Introduction
2023 (English)In: Reconstructing Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: National Revival and Interwar Politics, 1870 – 1940 / [ed] Nely Keinänen, Per Sivefors, London: Bloomsbury Academic , 2023, p. 1-34Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

An introduction to the volume that outlines the history of Shakespeare reception in the Nordic countries in the period approximately 1870 - 1940.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2023
Series
Global Shakespeare Inverted
Keywords
Shakespeare reception, Nordic Countries, national revival, theatre history, translation
National Category
Languages and Literature Specific Literatures
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98894 (URN)9781350251250 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-08-14 Created: 2024-03-14Bibliographically approved
Keinänen, N. & Sivefors, P. (2023). Introduction: Hamlet and the Nordic Countries. Critical Survey, 35(4), 1-9
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Introduction: Hamlet and the Nordic Countries
2023 (English)In: Critical Survey, ISSN 0011-1570, E-ISSN 1752-2293, Vol. 35, no 4, p. 1-9Article in journal, Editorial material (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

The story of Shakespeare's Nordic play is also, inevitably, one of cultural exchanges before, during and after the early modern period. From its origins in Nordic tradition to its re-introduction in the Nordic countries through Shakespeare's play, the story of Hamlet from the Middle Ages to the present is inextricably bound up with Nordic history and culture. In tracing some of these links, this special issue develops our recent work on the early dissemination of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries, focusing here on that most Nordic of plays, Hamlet. Although there is already a great deal of criticism on Hamlet in various national or regional contexts, very little of this has focused on the Nordic countries.1 It is therefore fitting, we believe, to provide a necessarily brief outline of the rich and varied history that Shakespeare's play has had in Northern Europe.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berghahn Journals, 2023
Keywords
Hamlet, Nordic Countries, reception, translation, performance
National Category
Languages and Literature
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98801 (URN)10.3167/cs.2023.350401 (DOI)001085828100001 ()2-s2.0-85174186151 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-09-13 Created: 2024-03-15Bibliographically approved
Keinänen, N. & Sivefors, P. (Eds.). (2023). Nordic Hamlets. Berghahn Books
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Nordic Hamlets
2023 (English)Collection (editor) (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

A thematic issue of the journal Critical Survey in which we explore the receptioni history of Hamlet in the Nordic countries.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berghahn Books, 2023
Series
Critical Survey, ISSN 0011-1570, E-ISSN 1752-2293 ; 35.4
Keywords
Hamlet, Shakespeare, reception, Nordic countries, translation, performance
National Category
Languages and Literature
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98803 (URN)
Note

Editor of journal special issue

Available from: 2023-09-13 Created: 2024-03-15Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. & Keinänen, N. (Eds.). (2023). Reconstructing Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: National Revival and Interwar Politics, 1870 – 1940. London: Bloomsbury Publishing
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Reconstructing Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: National Revival and Interwar Politics, 1870 – 1940
2023 (English)Collection (editor) (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

Examining the changing reception of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries between 1870 and 1940, this follow-up volume to Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries focuses on the broad movements of national revivalism that took place around the turn of the century as Finland and Norway, and later Iceland, were gaining their independence. A number of contributions demonstrate how translations and productions of Shakespeare were key in such movements, as Shakespeare was appropriated for national and political purposes. Other contributions discuss how the role of Shakespeare in the Nordic countries was partly transformed in the 1920s and 1930s as a new social system emerged, and then as the rise of fascism meant that European politics cast a long shadow on the Nordic countries and substantially affected the reception of Shakespeare.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023. p. 286
Series
Global Shakespeare Inverted
Keywords
William Shakespeare, Shakespeare reception, Nordic Countries, translation, performance, Kaarlo Bergbom, Ida Aalberg, Norwegian National Theatre, Shakespeare Mindefest, Henrik Rytter, Eyvind Johnson
National Category
Languages and Literature Specific Literatures
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98895 (URN)9781350251250 (ISBN)
Available from: 2023-08-14 Created: 2024-03-14Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. (2023). Sweden and Shakespeare's Protestant Afterlife: Three Translators in the Nineteenth Century. Critical Survey, 35(2), 11-21
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Sweden and Shakespeare's Protestant Afterlife: Three Translators in the Nineteenth Century
2023 (English)In: Critical Survey, ISSN 0011-1570, E-ISSN 1752-2293, Vol. 35, no 2, p. 11-21Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

This article argues that three Swedish translators of Shakespeare, Olof Bjurbäck (1750–1829), Johan Henrik Thomander (1798–1865) and Carl August Hagberg (1810–1864), understood their tasks in relation to what they saw as fundamental religious, specifically Protestant, precepts. All three were either bishops in the state church or came from a family of clerics (Hagberg). While Bjurbäck's prose translation of Hamlet (1820) owes its religious background to Rousseau and Luther, the later Thomander insisted on faithfulness to the original yet also emphasising the centrality of secular works in Christian instruction, and Hagberg owes a debt to the Protestant notion of going ad fontes. In short, rather than constructing a narrative of secularisation around the three translators, this article concludes that Protestant ideology, while itself changing, remained important to understand their work.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Berghahn Books, 2023
Keywords
Shakespeare, translation, Protestantism, secularisation, Olof Bjurbäck, Johan Henrik Thomander, Carl August Hagberg
National Category
Specific Literatures Religious Studies
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98874 (URN)10.3167/cs.2023.350202 (DOI)001075147800002 ()2-s2.0-85164309678 (Scopus ID)
Available from: 2023-05-19 Created: 2024-03-14Bibliographically approved
Sivefors, P. (2022). 'A blot on Swedish hospitality': Ira Aldridge’s Visit to Stockholm in 1857. In: Nely Keinänen; Per Sivefors (Ed.), Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: Shifting Centres and Peripheries in the Nineteenth Century (pp. 189-210). London: Bloomsbury Academic
Open this publication in new window or tab >>'A blot on Swedish hospitality': Ira Aldridge’s Visit to Stockholm in 1857
2022 (English)In: Disseminating Shakespeare in the Nordic Countries: Shifting Centres and Peripheries in the Nineteenth Century / [ed] Nely Keinänen; Per Sivefors, London: Bloomsbury Academic , 2022, p. 189-210Chapter in book (Refereed)
Abstract [en]

This book chapter examines the reception of the African-American actor Ira Aldridge’s visit to Stockholm in 1857, during which he performed Shylock in The Merchant of Venice and the title role of Othello at the Royal Theatre. The event caused a very lively debate in the press, revealing a wide range of responses, from the openly racist to the equally openly anti-racist, as well as a conflict between aesthetic norms concerning realism in acting. While reviewers often brought up the question of Aldridge’s blackness, they were deeply divided as to his acting. Moreover, the lines of division cannot be neatly categorized in terms of aesthetically conservative and racist versus aesthetically radical and anti-racist. Instead, some of the most positive responses to Aldridge’s performances are also the most deeply entrenched in racial categorization whereas some of the more hostile ones reject or play down race. Thus, the discussion of aesthetics in the reviews has a complex relation to the sometimes casual, sometimes elaborate referencing of race. In order to discuss this connection, the chapter contextualizes the production from the perspective of changes in theatrical practice, and in particular in debates over the nature of acting in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022
Series
Global Shakespeare Inverted
Keywords
Shakespeare, global Shakespeare, theatre history, Ira Aldridge, reception studies, Othello, The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare in the nineteenth century, Shakespeare and race
National Category
Specific Languages Specific Literatures
Research subject
Humanities, English literature; Humanities, Comparative literature
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-98808 (URN)9781350200869 (ISBN)9781350200883 (ISBN)978-1-3502-0101-9 (ISBN)978-1-3502-0087-6 (ISBN)
Available from: 2022-02-24 Created: 2024-03-15Bibliographically approved
Organisations
Identifiers
ORCID iD: ORCID iD iconorcid.org/0000-0002-2469-6431

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